I didn’t expect to write a new post every quarter sharing my goals, but then it dawned on me, why not?

Writing that post was helpful in me sticking to my goals. Plus I had a lot of positive feedback from my readers. (yes that’s you and YOU rock!)

I’ve decided that going forward I will be sharing my goals each quarter and hope that you can be inspired to accomplish and conquer your own goals.

Before I share this quarter’s goals, let’s reflect back on the goals I had for the previous quarter.

Recap of Last Quarter

1. Launch Good Financial Cents podcast.

The Good Financial Cents podcast was launched and it has been kicking butt ever since. Because of you and the number of people that have subscribed, downloaded, and reviewed it, it hit number six on the business investing category in iTunes. That is flipping amazing.

2. Launch re-design of Good Financial Cents.

The re-design has been phenomenal. Email subscribers have gone up, engagement has gone up, everything has gone up since I launched the re-design. I only wish I would have done it sooner.

3. Give killer talk at the Financial Blogger Conference.

I came, I spoke, I conquered. Public speaking is becoming more of a passion of mine and I already have two keynote talks lined up for this year – including my first paid speaking gig!

You can watch my talk below:

4. Schedule Disney cruise with family.

I had goals and aspirations of taking my family of five on a Disney cruise this past quarter. This goal did not happen, and it was for one simple reason; our 2-1/2-year-old, Sloane. I wanted a vacation, to go away and to be able to relax. Currently our 2-year-old is in that state that resembles a lot like hell.

The more I thought about it, the more unrelaxing it sounded by having to take a family of five on a Disney cruise. I then proposed to my wife that alternatively how about her and I go somewhere, just the two of us, and leave the kids at home. Enter Cozumel, Mexico.

My wife and I were able to get away for five days without the kids for the first kid-free vacation in over nine and a half years. It was amazing.

We’re still planning on going on the Disney cruise soon, just when our youngest hellion gets a little bit older.

5. Complete course for Wisebread.com

This is the one big goal that didn’t happen last quarter. I got busy working on my next blog movement, Operation #investNOW, and Wisebread got busy working on other revenue generating activities. We’re still in talks of getting this done, but for the time being it’s in a stalling pattern.

Okay, now that we looked at last quarter’s goals and the results, let’s take a look what I have lined up for next quarter.

What I Will Conquer This Quarter

1. Pre-sell course to GFC community.

As mentioned above, I planned on creating a course strictly for the Wisebread community. Instead, I’m going to focus my efforts on a course for the Good Financial Cents community. Why not?

I love my readers and I should have started here first, plus there’s no reason why the same course couldn’t be marketed to the community on Wisebread. My thoughts of that, I can create the course one time and after a few tweaks, offer to the Wisebread community as well.

Some people know that I have another site, Lifeinsurancebyjeff.com, and a way to make that site more of an authority site, launching a podcast was the next only logical sense.

At the time of writing this post, I’ve already recorded four episodes to the podcast and have everything ordered. I just now need to task my virtual assistant to get it uploaded and then submit it to iTunes.

3. Complete resource guide for annuity clients.

In the financial services industry, annuities are by far the most misrepresented and misused investment product ever sold. That being said, I still believe that annuities in the right situation with the right client, can make a whole lot of sense.

I want to create resources and training tools to help consumers properly determine if an annuity is right for them. I have some ideas of what I need to do, which include creating a few downloadable guides and filming four to five videos of educating consumers.

4. Hire new office manager for Alliance Wealth Management, LLC.

I hired my first office manager last year, and the results have been amazing. I’ve been able to delegate many tasks that have freed up so much more time to focus on my unique ability, a.k.a. the stuff I love to do and get paid to do it.

Unfortunately my current office manager has aspirations of following her dream, and her and her husband will be starting a new business together. Because of that, I will be losing her and I’m forced to find a replacement. The interview process has already begun, so I’m hoping to have someone hired in the month of February.

5. Make reservations for family RV trip this summer.

If you recall my initial goal setting post, I shared one of my one-year goals is taking my family on a two-week RV trip this summer. It’s only January, but I can hardly wait for this to happen. I’ve done a little bit of research but I need to actually pick up the phone and make a phone call to find out more about reserving an RV for some time in the June or July time frame.

6. Deliver awesome keynote talk.

For the first time in my life, I will be giving my first keynote talk this March at the Southern Illinois Men’s Health Conference. This is a few firsts for me.

It’s the first keynote talk that I’ll ever give,

This is the first time that I’m actually getting paid to talk.

I have another keynote talk lined up for later in the year which I’ll be sharing here soon.

7. Lose 10 pounds.

I am a CrossFit fanatic and I love to work out. Most people just assume that because I work out so much, that my diet has to be in check. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

This past summer I started a combination of a Paleo/gluten free diet. I absolutely loved it and was able to lose over 12 pounds. Here are a few pictures of me weighing in at approximately 202 pounds.

Unfortunately, I pretty much gained all of it back over the winter.

When it gets cold and the holidays creep up, my diet tends to slack. BIG time.

How bad exactly? How about eating an entire chocolate cake in a weekend?

Yeah, I’m a sucker for chocolate cake.

There are no excuses for that. Based on my height and build, I feel that I should weigh somewhere in the 200 to 202-pound range. My goal is to get there this quarter.

Even faster, I set a goal to get there by the time of our kids’ spring break which is March 10.

I remember in college when I was big into weight lifting I was determined to get above 200 pounds for spring break. Now in my 30’s I’m trying to get below 200.

#gettingold

Habits I would like to work on.

In addition to having quarterly goals, another thing I won’t to focus on is adding new positive habits to my life. I previously talked about the bad habit challenge where I was inspiring people to take on a new habit and focus on that habit for a 21-day period. This quarter I want to focus on adding these new habits to my day.

1. Doing 30 push-ups every morning before I leave the house.

I started doing 100 push-ups a day and did so for that 21-day period. The only problem that I noticed though was that my shoulder was starting to get really sore which affected my CrossFit workouts. I felt as if maybe I was overtraining and 100 push-ups was overdoing it.

Instead of doing 100 daily I want to focus on performing at least a minimum of 30 push-ups before I leave the house to get my metabolism going.

2. Reading the Bible for 10 to 15 minutes every day.

Reading the Bible consistently has been an ongoing challenge for me. I did awesome in that 21-day period, but then slacked off. I want to revisit that habit and make sure that I’m reading the Bible 10 to 15 minutes every day. For me, the best time to do this is right after I put the kids to bed before I do any blog stuff before I go to sleep.

3. Operation Gratitude.

I just finished the book, The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy. In that book, Darren shared how every day he writes down one thing that he’s thankful for regarding his spouse. He says that it helped him better appreciate everything that his spouse did for him and it really helped strengthen their marriage.

I loved everything about this.

There have been times that I feel that I’m under appreciative of all that my wife does, and to make sure that I don’t lose site of that, I’ve started what I call Operation Gratitude.

Each day I write down one thing that I’m thankful for that my wife has done. Thus far it has been amazing because I truly see everything that she does and it is A LOT!!! (yeah, my wife is awesome)

When you’re thankful for someone, you have no choice but to want to love on them more and express how much you care for them.

I encourage you to give it a try. I think you’ll be amazed by the results.

What Are You Working?

What goals are you working on right now? Can I help?

To help me stay on point with my quarterly goals I also write down my weekly goals. I’ve decided to publicly share those on the Good Financial Cents Facebook page each Monday now known as #goalsmonday.

Comments | 7 Responses

You’re rocking your quarter goals! So far, this year I’m determined to focus on quarter goals instead of annual goals. It’s working so far. I’ve shredded my first quarter goals and now need to refine second quarter ones. This year it’s all about paying down those last few credit cards (I’m so close!) and saving!

Being Paleo is awesome!! Mark and I have both started doing that (yes, Paleo is possible for him even on deployment!) and it has been great for our health. Once we move out to AZ for his CCC, we would like to find a CrossFit gym and do that together twice a week. For now, with my crazy schedule, I work in exercises with a resistance band at work and often sit on an exercise ball instead of a desk chair. Another one of our goals this year is to go on a survival/adventure trip with Cody Lundin’s organization. Oh yeah, and finally have our church wedding and go to Colorado for our honeymoon in April! 🙂

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